If I had to choose one thing that I had to do everyday for the rest of my life it would be to make blankets.  As fast as I can post them they are selling which is GREAT!  Thanks to all the kind people who are buying them!  In the meantime I am working hard to get some stock made for three selling events coming soon!

First I will be a part of Live and Let’s Give on November 6-8 at the Litchenstein Center for the Arts in the heart of Pittsfield.  This first time event is curated by my friend and fabulous potter Michele O’Hana of Ha’Penny Design.  30 of the area’s best crafters will gather to sell.  Proceeds will benefit Charley’s Fund.

The very next weekend I will be selling at Twist in Northampton Friday evening from 6-9pm and then all day on Saturday November 14th from 10-6pm.  I participated last year and it was a lot of fun and great sales were made by all!

December 4, 5, and 6th we will be hosting our annual Handmade Holiday Festival at Alchemy Initiative.  This year we will have 40 vendors and use both floors of the church for selling.  A great group of sellers is forming!

Hope to see you out there at one of these events and look forward to staying in touch!

Rorey Stella Morningside

The story continues – You can learn all about the Morningside Family with a daily update here.  As my Ragamuffins come to life their history is unfolding – documented for the first time in history.  Learn more with every Ragamuffin posted in my online shop.  Fun and funny!

There is a new batch of Ragamuffins coming into the world.  There is a family history story coming along with them that you can follow with each listing in my online shop. These little ones are CUTE and really fun to make.  Writing the story makes it all the more entertaining for me – and I hope for you too!  Ragamuffin Tails is the new Guiding Light!

Maude Morningside

As of today there are openings all three days of the scarf and blanket making workshop scheduled for October 3, 4, and 5th.  (Class size is limited to 10 people for this one, teaching how to turn cast-off sweaters into lovely handmade scarves and/or blankets.)

Come learn the hand sewing techniques used to construct a scarf (in one day) or blanket if you attend for two or three days.  (Of course you could make two or three scarves (or maybe even 4 or 5 if you are QUICK) if you so choose in two or three days!)

Taking this class will teach you the skills needed to make gifts for all the most important people on  your holiday gift giving list, all, while recycling discarded wool sweaters.  Make the gifts especially meaningful by using out-grown or otherwise cast away sweaters that have a connection to you or your loved ones.

Workshops are $150 per day – that includes the use of all tools and materials as well as a tastey lunch.  Each workshop day begins at 10 am and finishes by 4:30pm.  Students are welcome to attend for one, two, or all three days of the class.  More time allows for more indepth learning and project completion.  Each attendee will finish a project to take home in class.

Feel free to call or email any questions you might have to me at crispinaffrench@gmail.com or 413-236-9600.  Cheers to recycling!

I am walking miles everyday and thoroughly enjoying it, as week two of being a one-car family comes to a close.  On Tuesday we saw a Palliated Woodpecker fly right across our path on the morning journey to the babysitter.  On Wednesday Lucy told me that walking is ’so much more fun than driving in a car’.  Everyday I notice traces of nature and more miles of uninterrupted asphalt in our fair city.  I heard a statistic a while back that 86% of the downtown square mile of Pittsfield is covered in impermeable surfaces – leading to all sorts of drainage issues in the city’s low spots.  That number makes me think I must be remembering it incorrectly – maybe it is 68%?  Either way it is daunting!  Water drainage and plants, greenspace and trees wherever possible nurture me, my community and our planet.  My husband and I own a parking lot that stretches from our church foundation walls without break (accepting a few ever-widening potholes) right up to the adjacent property walls without so much as a blade of grass poking through.  Here is my answer to the lack of plant growth.  Next summer one might see these sprouting up all over the city.  Let’s Hope – please contact me if you are local and have a claw foot tub/s looking for interesting reuse!

Last Sunday’s Potholder Rug Making Studio Workshop was a day well spent!  What a nice bunch of ladies showed up and everyone went home with a lovely 2.5×3.5ft rug they made that day.  There are a new batch of looms in the studio for sale.  The gals on Sunday took a bunch of them home to continue on the potholder path.  If you are interested, you can find them for purchase in my online shop

I have a friend who, for some reason unknown, stays with me in magical spirit with frequent reminders.  Rafe was surely a stand-out but never did I know how much I would miss him when he left this place so young,  so happy, and other worldly – is it ironic?  He brought a diverse and loving community together and that carries on.  Josephine is growing, flowers bloom and nights get cool and I think of you outside in the garden, or in the woods.  Thanks for the blessings.

Growing up my family hand screen printed and sold The Dolphin Studio Calendar which was designed to put money in the bank for college for me and my sisters.  2010 is the 39th (or maybe it is the 38th) year of calendar production.  Mom and Dad are 80 and after all these years have decided to relinguish calendar production to me and my sister Sofie.  Beginning for the 2009 calendar we subbed out the actual printing to an old family friend, John Ahlen, who has an immaculate screen printing studio here in Pittsfield. Sofie and I have taken care of collating, wrapping, boxing, marketing, selling and shipping for the last two years.

Much to our chagrin John Ahlen would like to retire after printing the 2010 calendar.  (Which we finished yesterday!)  I have spent a lot of time this summer apprenticing in John’s studio in the hope that I can learn the process well enough to print the 2011 calendar in my studio with equipment from my Dad and John Ahlen’s studios.  About a month ago I realized that the guy is a true master of his trade and that it would take me a bigger time investment to get it all together to make a high quality, calendar of the caliber Dolphin Studio customers have become accustomed.  YIKES!

First off I need to learn about water based, environmentally safe paints, solvents, emulsions etc.  Mom and Dad work super old-school hand cutting stencils with Ruby-Lith film and a make-shift vacuum table.  John Ahlen exposes photo emulsion to make screens which saves lots of time and reduces the range of expertise demanded by this crazy job I have taken on.  He also works old-school with all oil based paints, thinners, cleaners, etc. (without much ventilation!).  I leave his place with pounding headaches and taste the smell for literally days.  John Ahlen is not really interested in changing the process he is getting excited to leave behind.  This prompted me to attend a screen printing workshop in Brooklyn last Sunday at 3rd Ward.  A place with an uncannily similar mission to Alchemy Initiative.  The day was well spent.  My teacher Phil, has a shop of his own called Sheepshead Design.  He simplified the process and detailed ink suppliers and attributes.  All really helpful information.

Brooklyn was inspiring all by itself.  The day was sunny, cool, and bright.  I walked for miles taking in the sunshine, grafitti, and alternative culture that abounds there.  Great to get out of the studio and Pittsfield just for the day!